Monday, 23 September 2013

Floating and Sinking!


As part of our 'Unsinkable' topic, we have been investigating objects that float and sink.

We discussed whether a clay ball would float or sink, and we all agreed that due the weight of the clay, it would sink.

Unsurprisingly, we found that the ball of clay very quickly sunk. However, we were challenged to see if we could make it float!
 We experimented with different shapes of clay to see if we could make the clay float.



Once we had decided on a shape we thought would float, we tested our theory and put the clay in water.




 Some people tried filling the clay with air to make it buoyant, but we quickly discovered that the clay was too heavy.


Success! Through developing  our ideas as we discovered which shapes sunk more slowly, we found a shape that allowed the clay to float.

We decided that to float, an object has to displace an amount of water which is equal to its own weight. For an object to float, the upthrust and gravity acting upon the object need to be balanced. If the gravity is greater, the object will sink.

What about the shape of the clay do you think allows it to float?

Do you think there are any other shapes that we didn't test that may have worked?
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6 comments:

  1. Anonymous24 September 2013 at 06:50

    Sounds like you learned an amazing amount Year 5. I am super impressed by you (as always).
    Mrs Goto

    ReplyDelete
  2. Miss Piggin26 September 2013 at 08:08

    You look like you have had a great afternoon learning about floating and sinking Year 5.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mrs Monks27 September 2013 at 16:07

    This looks like great fun Year 5 and you learnt so much about floating and sinking. Mrs Monks

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous30 September 2013 at 18:13

    Its lovely to see you all settling in and enjoying your work so early on in the year, year 5. Millie has been telling me so much she has learnt this year already :)
    Millies mum

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous6 October 2013 at 19:09

    MOLLY has worked VERY hard on HER ART WORK IN YEAR 5. MOLLY GETS MESSY .
    FROM DARCY .

    ReplyDelete
  6. Lydia's Mum7 October 2013 at 17:33

    Lydia from year one, has just read me a book called "floating boats", it tells us all about what you have been up to. Lydia says your work is good.

    ReplyDelete

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